


OK, Who Had Natural Disaster on Their 2020 Bingo Card?

by Kira_Dattei



Series: The Old Guard Whumptober 2020 [28]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Aftermath, Earthquakes, Established Relationship, Immortal Husbands Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, M/M, Natural Disasters, Pre-Canon, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:21:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27728036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kira_Dattei/pseuds/Kira_Dattei
Summary: Joe and Nicky happened to be in Nepal in 2015.Prompt: Earthquake
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: The Old Guard Whumptober 2020 [28]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1994617
Kudos: 59





	OK, Who Had Natural Disaster on Their 2020 Bingo Card?

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not a whump writer so I can't promise a huge amount of whump in all of these. I just picked the prompt from each day that actually sparked an idea and ran with it.  
> I'm mostly using these as a way to get a feel for the characters and I simply love the relationships given in canon and wanted to explore them.  
> Joe is the lucky whumpee for most of these because I just love him.
> 
> These are all going to be one-shots and they are as connected as you want them to be so you’re good to just read one and not worry about missing anything.

Nicky woke up slowly so he probably hadn’t died. He might have been knocked out or drugged. The fact that he wasn’t immediately aware of when he’d reached a state he needed to wake up from enforced that.

He had a moment where he was a little irritated that he knew the difference between all those ways of waking up, the thought relatively common nowadays as he was currently in one of his more cynical phases in regards to his and his loved ones’ lives.

Either way, he certainly wasn’t comfortable enough to have fallen asleep on purpose. Or accidentally for that matter, he decided after another moment.

Where was Joe? He couldn’t feel his love at his back.

The thought had his mind focusing in an instant and his eyes opened as he sat upright. But he stopped himself quickly as he realized that he didn’t have much room to move around. He was in…the destroyed remains of the hotel room they’d been staying in for the past two weeks.

Joe hadn’t been there, having stayed out a little longer to finish a sketch he’d been working on about a block away while Nicky headed back to get started on dinner. It was just the two of them in Nepal, Andy and Booker giving the pair a little time on their own after their last mission so they could get back into the next one with clear heads.

Booker would appreciate the irony of them happening to be in the area when an earthquake apparently strong enough to destroy the building they’d been staying in hit. Booker always found sadistic glee in happenstance like that, times where they just happened to be around when something happened that they ended up helping with. It happened semi-regularly.

Now that he was much more focused, Nicky recalled that’s what he’d felt, the violent unsteadiness of the floor beneath him that he’d only remained on his feet from centuries of fighting and that did wonders for one’s balance. But it had been enough to make the room collapse around him and he’d managed to get close enough to the outer wall to avoid being crushed. He’d still gotten somewhat buried but it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could be.

And he wasn’t outright pinned by anything so he’d be able to work himself free on his own. Then he could find Joe and they would likely spend the next few days in the rescue efforts.

They’d decide then if they would even bother calling to let Andy know what had happened. Though that would take some time as their cell phones would likely be useless here. They’d already been unreliable in getting a signal and earthquakes weren’t exactly kind to cell towers. And plenty of people would already be trying to call in and out as it were.

It took Nicky easily half an hour to find his way out of the remains of the building, unfortunately not coming across anyone else alive on his way. He walked far enough away so that he could look back and know for sure what was left of the hotel.

Most of the outer wall was intact with only bits here and there outright collapsed. Their room had been on the second floor and it looked like he’d lucked out in that the building had somewhat collapsed outward where he’d been. It had apparently been built decently enough that it was still mostly standing and he was relieved to see that many people were making their way out.

It was time to work towards his next priority of finding Joe.

Everything about what he saw was completely different than what he’d seen not long ago when he’d returned to the hotel. Gaping splits through the middle of the road. Buildings with no obvious damage right next to ones that were completely destroyed. People wandering aimlessly, some stained with blood. People crying out and screaming in Nepali, a language Nicky had only picked up a few phrases while Joe knew more but wouldn’t call himself fluent.

Nicky tried to not get caught up in anything he saw until he found Joe. They both knew that in modern times, it was following sudden disasters like this that made for the most difficult scenario to find a single person in. He knew where he’d left Joe, though, and knew that while his love could be easily distractable when he didn’t need to be focused for a mission, he wouldn’t have wandered far. So he kept his eyes peeled for the man he was most familiar with, looking as much for his familiar features as he was the leather jacket over the light blue shirt and the years old baseball cap he’d been wearing.

He came into view of the bench where he’d parted from Joe, irrationally hoping that he’d still just be sitting there waiting for Nicky to come for him. Of course he wasn’t and Nicky walked up to the bench, looking for anything that might tell him where his heart was now.

Joe had been carrying a small backpack, as he pretty much always did whether or not they were on mission. It was still sitting under the bench.

Nicky walked around the bench and grabbed the backpack, looking inside to check what was in it, knowing what Joe liked to carry with him. Everything was there, even the sketchpad he’d been working in when Nicky had left.

Then Joe had been well enough to put it all away when he’d left. And if he’d been planning to just head back to the hotel, he would have taken this with him and would have taken the route that Nicky had come in on. So he was still nearby. Nicky slipped the backpack onto his back and looked around for any obvious place for Joe to have gone. But with so much destruction surrounding him and knowing it would be like that for miles, it would basically come down to luck that Nicky picked the right direction to search.

He ended up working out from the bench, searching each building systematically, especially if he could hear cries for help from within, guessing it was likely that Joe could have gotten lost in the act of helping who he could in what would be a time sensitive situation. It was something both of them were just as likely to do and so it didn’t even occur to Nicky to get upset if that was the case now. After all, they were the ones here that could have gotten hurt or killed in this mess and have it not matter.

And Nicky did that now, helping anyone he found alive, bringing them out from under rubble or away from unsafe buildings to where it was clear and they could get to where medical aid would find them faster and so they wouldn’t be in as much danger from aftershocks knocking something else onto the survivors.

He’d worked his way three blocks out from where he’d started over the next two hours and he was beginning to get frustrated. He didn’t like not knowing for sure that Joe hadn’t gotten hurt and then healed. There was that lingering doubt that rose up every time they were apart and something happened. The fear that this was the time that Joe had gotten hurt and it didn’t heal and Nicky wouldn’t be there.

Nicky was about to start pacing the streets just calling out Joe’s name when he caught a glimpse of familiar dark, curly hair among a small group of people moving away from Nicky. He looked closer and breathed a sigh of relief as he confirmed that it was Joe, his love supporting another man as he hobbled along and speaking to those around him, giving them calm, clear directions to follow in their shocked state.

Nicky moved in, following a few paces behind the group to keep Joe in his sight but letting him help the people he was focused on. And when Joe lowered the man to the ground and stood upright with a bit of a stretch and an obvious sigh, Nicky was already moving closer.

Joe turned just as Nicky reached him, his eyes widening to indicate he’d recognized it was Nicky just as he pulled him into an embrace.

“You couldn’t have made a quick stop at the hotel first, _hayati_?” Nicky scolded his love in German simply because it was a language that was satisfying to scold someone in.

“Maybe next time you should leave out the endearment and I will feel properly reprimanded,” Joe replied easily and then gave Nicky a firm kiss in apology. “Were you injured or anything?” he then asked as he pulled away just enough to look Nicky in the eyes.

“The wall of our room ended up on the street and I’m mostly certain I was knocked out in the process but that’s all. What about you?” Joe did have blood on him but it was all smeared along his arms and shirt and so Nicky was assuming none of it was Joe’s.

“Not even a scratch.” He gave a light chuckle. “It’s been a long time since we were in a stronger earthquake. I’d almost forgotten what it felt like.” Joe’s expression then became somber. “It will be a long time before they recover from this. The damage will be widespread, not to mention anything else that comes from the aftershocks.”

Nicky pulled away with a nod, knowing Joe was right. It hadn’t been the first time they’d helped with recovery from a disaster exactly like this. They just usually weren’t there right when it happened. They could do a lot of good here just by not being a day or two into rescue efforts when they got there.

He slid the backpack off his shoulders and handed it off to Joe, who took it with a grateful smile before he checked its contents quickly and then slid it onto his own back.

“Where did you leave off?” Nicky asked. Now that he’d found Joe, he was ready to dedicate all his attention to helping those who needed it.

Joe leaned in and gave Nicky another quick kiss on the lips.

“These came from an office building a block that way. These were all that were free and able to move. There are still more inside. I was going to return there.”

“Then that’s where we return.”

Joe gave him another smile, obviously pleased that they were going to continue with rescuing people. It wouldn’t be that he thought Nicky wouldn’t since he knew Nicky better than that. He just liked being able to help people without needing to kill others to do so and showed it.

Nicky was of the same opinion.

They worked through the rest of the day as well as through the night, able to carry on longer than most. Because even though their healing didn’t keep them from getting tired or give them any inhuman strength, they did regain strength a bit faster. Their endurance was also beyond most and they’d learned how to ignore discomfort long ago. They could go on long after most needed to stop. And the satisfaction of pulling one more breathing person from rubble was reward enough for their exhaustion and incentive to keep going. It helped further that emergency medical stations were being set up that they could bring people to instead of just getting them free and hoping where they left them was safe.

They’d need to stop at some point to take at least a little rest and find some food and water to get down so they could keep going as they were.

It was just barely into dawn when Joe randomly said, “Do you think we should tell Andy about this or see how long it takes her to hear about it and ask us?”

“We aren’t due to meet back up with her and Booker for another nine days. That is plenty of time for her to happen to hear news about this. We are in the twenty-first century now, _mio amore_ , where news travels quickly.”

“Yes, but Andy has been making quite an effort to avoid news whenever possible.” Nicky felt a wave of sadness at the reminder that their sister had been seeming to be much more weighed down by her life lately. They kept hoping she would do something to try and revitalize herself but it wasn’t looking promising.

It was becoming difficult for the two of them to see, to work with and not feel the urge to ask her not to do something that so obviously caused her heart pain.

Nicky followed Joe into the next partially collapsed building. There were no sounds of people inside but they knew better than to bypass it because of that. “Looking to make a bet?”

Joe let out a short scoff. “I’ll do no such thing, not when I am not entirely guaranteed to win. She can be inconsistent in what information she looks for on her own and Booker may ruin it for me.”

Nicky had to smile at how his love didn’t take bets like Booker did. And he was assuming that it was much more likely that Andy would find out about the earthquake through Booker as he was the one who mostly looked through news to find them many of their missions. And Booker knew they were in Nepal.

“You have no sense of adventure,” Nicky gave a familiar accusation, raising his voice a bit as Joe went to another room to continue searching, Nicky going in the opposite direction so they could clear the building faster. And their conversation might let anyone conscious know there was someone nearby and they could call for help and be heard.

“I have a perfectly healthy sense of adventure. You simply have a gambling problem.”

Joe had barely gotten that out when he called out for Nicky, indicating that he’d found someone and Nicky went to help.

This was how they spent the next three days, helping others when they found them and just doing whatever they could to get anyone to a safer location than a destroyed land still being hit with aftershocks.

It wasn’t the worst interruption to time alone they’d had, both Nicky and Joe agreed.

And when they met back up with Andy and Booker and the first thing Booker asked them was if they liked Nepal shaken, Joe had just given Nicky a satisfied look. Because in not taking the bet and then the reason he hadn’t being proven was as good as winning a bet to Joe. Nicky knew better than to try and prove otherwise as Joe had long since found counters to every point Nicky had thought of so far to make.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed.
> 
> Here's another one that I chose pretty much immediately because I'm Alaskan and so I know what more severe earthquakes feel like. I don't even feel anything under a 5 because I've grown up feeling them and you just get used to them. But we just had a 7.1 about two years ago (though people tend to not know about it because how we construct things means there was pretty minimal damage and no deaths, well, that and we're Alaska and people ignore us ^_^) so I've actually felt close to what the one in Nepal experienced. Though I did need to do quite a bit of looking at earthquakes that caused significant damage to write this and wow was that not fun. But it was actually looking at the aftermath details that made me decide not to kill either of the guys for this one. It just felt disingenuous.


End file.
